The Harvard Art Museums’ “Made in Germany?” includes Nevin Aladağ’s very of-the-moment “Best Friends Dortmund #4,” a detail of which is shown here.
At Harvard Art Museums, it’s the last week to see “Made in Germany?” – a kaleidoscopic exhibition exploring the opposing ideas of openness and xenophobic nationalism in the country’s recent history.
An installation piece is a highlight of the show: Henrike Naumann’s “Ostalgie (Ostalgia),” a fully furnished 1990s living room installed perpendicular to the floor, complete with kitschy furniture and nationalist wall decor – equally tacky vestiges of the time. But a variety of documentary photography and new media pieces ground the exhibition with slice-of-life realness, each rich with history and humanity. Ulrich Wüst’s “Hausbuch” is a powerful collection of 172 photographs depicting objects found from homes next to the Berlin Wall after its fall. The photos fill up an entire gallery wall. Nevin Aladağ’s photo series “Best Friends” is a true time capsule: in one image, teen girls’ haircuts are unmistakably 2000s-era; in another, two friends pose, their clothes also dating them unmistakably. Underlying these old snapshots is the reality that many nationalist and xenophobic ideas sadly haven’t been left in the past; nor have they stayed in the confines of Germany.
The themes in “Made in Germany?” map disturbingly well onto the United States’ current political climate. As the Globe’s Murray Whyte writes, the exhibition is particularly potent now, as a second Trump presidency – with its promised immediate mass deportations – beckons.
A series of guided hourlong tours closes out the show next weekend, Saturday and Jan. 5. A collection of artist talks and other materials continues to live online at the museum’s YouTube channel.
“Made in Germany?” through Jan. 5 at the Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., near Harvard Square, Cambridge. Free.
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